Dax, page 3
“I know,” I sighed. “But that’s done now.” I paused, fingering my long blonde locks. I’d been growing my hair out for years now, but I guessed that she was probably right and that disguising myself was the best way to go. Just for a little while. Maybe I could stay right here in Boston with the right disguise.
“Come on, let’s get you to a hairdresser,” Becca said.
“I can’t afford that,” I said. “Why don’t you just cut it for me?”
Becca rolled her eyes. “Because if I give you a totally botched haircut, you’re going to turn heads even more than usual,” she said. “That wouldn’t exactly be ‘undercover.’”
“I guess not,” I sighed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll cover you,” Becca said. “I think I know someone who’d be able to protect you too. You could stay here in Massachusetts, but you’d have to get out of Boston. He lives in Greenboro.”
I snorted. “Greenboro, good one,” I said, assuming she was joking. Greenboro was barely a blip on the map. A tiny little town in the middle of nowhere on the way between Boston and Amherst, nothing more. “Maybe I should disappear to somewhere in Rhode Island instead. That would be more like civilization than Greenboro.”
Becca frowned at me. “Look, I’m just trying to help you,” she said. “And I think this guy is your best bet.” She shook her head. “I’ve heard more stories than you have about this gang you crossed, trust me. Don’t ask me how—I just know a lot about them. And trust me when I say, you don’t ever want those guys to find you again...or the lack of social life in Greenboro is going to be the very least of your worries.”
I stared at her, slowly starting to realize that she wasn’t joking. She really did think it would be a good idea for me to disappear to Greenboro to be protected by whoever it was who had told her all about gang life, presumably.
But it wasn’t like I had a ton of options. “Fine,” I finally said. “Let’s go get me disguised. Hey, what do you think I would look like as a ginger?”
Becca laughed. “I think you’d look terrible,” she said. “You’re far too tan to be a ginger. But maybe we could go with dark hair. You’ll need a new name too. Go totally incognito.”
That afternoon, I got my hair chopped and dyed, and then Becca drove me to the bus station, handing me a printed map with directions scrawled on it. “There’s where you need to go when you get off the bus,” she told me. “I’ve already called Otis and told him that you’re on your way, but you’ll have to explain the situation yourself. Follow the instructions on the map and look for a tall guy with tattoos when you get there.”
“Otis?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “Who is this guy anyway? How do you know him?”
Becca didn’t have time to explain. “Just get on the bus,” she said.
“Are you sure I have to do this?” I asked, messing up my shaggy, rock star–like black hair. “I don’t think they would manage to find me again with me looking like this.” I wasn’t sure that Greenboro was the best place for me. If I’d had my doubts about finding work in Vermont, what the hell was I going to do in Greenboro?
But Becca seemed dead set on the idea. “You didn’t listen to me yesterday, and look where it got you,” she said. She paused. “Look, I was with you when you stole those stupid shoes, remember? You sticking around in Boston doesn’t just put you at risk; it puts me at risk as well. Now get out of here.”
There was a hint of impatience to her voice, like she did want me gone, good riddance. I felt tears prick my eyes, and I quickly turned away from her so that she wouldn’t see them. So that was how it was, I thought bitterly. No doubt now that she had David, things were going to be different between us. Probably better for her that I get the hell out of town and stop hanging off her for lunches, makeovers, and more.
I got on the bus without a backward look. Greenboro, Massachusetts. I looked down at the map in my hand, wondering just what it was that awaited me there.
Chapter 5
Dax
XANDER FROWNED, HIS hands on his hips as he surveyed my project bike. “You’re right, it doesn’t sound right,” he said as I revved the engine. He cocked his head to the side, listening. “All right, I think I have an idea.”
“That’s why I asked you to come over here,” I said, smiling at him. “I mean, I love the idea of doing all the work on my bike on my own, but let’s just say that I also know when to bow out.”
Xander and I had been friends since we were kids, but where I considered myself to be just average in intelligence, Xander had it all. Whatever he was interested in, he seemed to excel at, whether that was music, mechanics, or mathematics.
I still kind of wondered why he had chosen the MC life rather than going off to college and getting a “real” job. He could have been an engineer or an architect or literally anything. But instead, he had decided to be just another biker dude.
He owned his own garage now, though, and he wasn’t even quite thirty yet. So I supposed maybe he had made the right choice. He seemed to think so anyway.
Right now, he was pulling apart the engine of my bike piece by piece, his fingers working as deftly as though he had been the one to put the thing together in the first place. “I heard an interesting rumor, by the way,” Xander said as he worked, not looking at me.
“Oh yeah?” I said. “And what was that?”
“Apparently there were some Savages at the clubhouse yesterday to talk to Otis,” Xander said. “Anything you might know about that?”
I sighed and sank down into a crouch next to him, turning my own attention to the pieces he was disassembling and trying to think of a good lie. But there was no point in lying to Xander. He knew me too well, first of all. He would know if I was lying. And second of all, he wasn’t going to rat Kane out to Dad. He knew exactly what our relationship was with the man, how complicated it was. He wouldn’t fuck with that.
“Kane killed one of the Savages,” I admitted. “And then called me to clean up the mess. He says the guy tried to rob him, and I believe him. But he beat the guy to death.”
Xander winced. “I was afraid it might be something like that,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “Because you, like Dad, think that Kane can do no right?”
Xander raised an eyebrow at me. “Of course not,” he said. “More because I know that Kane just wants to follow in his big brother’s footsteps but that he’s not mature enough to know where to draw the line.” He shrugged. “I’ve been waiting for him to get into something like this for a while. I think we all kind of have. You included.”
I sighed, knowing he was right, as much as I hated to admit it. I’d cleaned up more than one of Kane’s messes over the years. Usually, they were a lot smaller. Fights in bars that were loyal to the Grim Riders, things like that. He’d never killed a guy before—that I knew of—and he’d never had any sort of run-ins with the Savages. But like Xander said, we had all kind of been waiting for something bigger to go wrong.
“How did Otis take it when you told him?” Xander asked.
I snorted. “You know we can’t tell him,” I said.
Xander looked up at me in surprise, his hands finally still on the mechanical parts he was adjusting. “Dax. You have to tell Otis,” he said.
“I have to look out for Kane,” I protested. “Dad would kill him if I told him Kane might well have started a war with the Savages, accidental as it may have been.”
Xander was shaking his head, though. “Look, I know Kane is blood and that you want to protect him. But you realize you’re putting all the rest of us at risk? And isn’t the whole MC like a brotherhood? You have to do what’s right by the rest of the members as well, not just what you need to do for Kane.”
I bit my lower lip, but I knew he was right. I was putting everyone at risk. Who knew when the Savages might choose to attack us or what they might try to do. I still didn’t know who exactly Kane had killed, and I was afraid to ask around in case it raised too many questions. But that meant we didn’t know what we were dealing with here. For all I knew, Kane could have killed the Savages’ leader’s son or someone equally important.
Dad needed to know exactly what had happened so that he and everyone else could be prepared for when the Savages eventually decided to come after us. And it would be better for me to tell him, rather than Kane.
Still... “He’s never going to let Kane be part of the Grim Riders after this,” I sighed.
“Can you blame him?” Xander asked archly. He shrugged when I gave him a look. “Sorry, Dax. You know I like the kid almost as much as you do. But there’s no denying that he’s a kid. He’s a liability. And you know that makes him dangerous.” He paused. “Can you picture him on any kind of mission? Send him to one of the local businesses to collect our monthly dues, and he’s just as likely to pick a fight as he is to be too lenient and tell the guy he doesn’t need to pay up. Or send him out to protect someone, and he’s just as likely to cause that fight to happen. He’s a ticking time bomb. You never know when he’s going to do or say something utterly stupid.”
I sighed. Maybe it was for the best that Kane wasn’t part of the club. But all the same, he was my brother, and I felt the need to side with him.
“He’ll get more mature as he gets more experience,” I said.
Xander snorted. “You mean as he accidentally kills off more of the Savages?” He held up a hand. “Look, Dax, just remember that this isn’t the first time he’s flown off the handle at someone. There was that bar incident too, a couple years ago. Remember the broken bottles and things?”
I shook my head. “No one died. And there were no Savages involved in that incident.”
“So what you’re admitting is that he’s getting worse with age,” Xander said. “You have to talk to Otis. Not least of which because when Otis finds out about this, if he realizes that you knew and you didn’t tell him about it sooner, he’s going to be pissed at you as well. And we need you, as much as the two of you don’t always see eye to eye.”
“You’re right,” I sighed.
“So why don’t I finish up here while you run over to the clubhouse?” Xander suggested. He grinned up at me. “You’re standing in my light, as it is.”
I laughed and threw a rag at him. “Aren’t you supposed to want to teach me or something?” I asked. “So that next time I don’t have to ask you to fix it for me?”
“This’ll never happen again,” Xander said. “It’s just a matter of a couple parts not fitting together the way you want them to. I’ll get it all trimmed up for you and put back together, and you can go on to work on whatever your next project is.”
“Fine,” I told him, even though going to the clubhouse now to talk to Dad about what Kane had done was the last thing I wanted to do. I wondered if I should call Kane and tell him to meet me there, but I decided against it. The farther away from the club Kane was when I told Dad, the safer he would be.
When I got to the clubhouse and knocked on Dad’s office door, though, he seemed to be in the middle of something. “What?” he asked impatiently.
“Is everything okay?” I asked slowly. Had the Savages already made their next move?
“Everything’s fine,” Dad said. “Your cousin, Becca, needs a favor, that’s all.”
“Becca?” I asked in surprise. She was a distant relation at best, definitely not a first cousin, although I couldn’t remember how exactly she was related to us. I hadn’t seen her or heard her name in years, though. I wondered just what sort of a favor she needed. “She need a bodyguard or something?”
Dad paused, and I could see something change in his expression. Something almost speculative came into his eyes as he looked at me. “Actually, she does. Sort of. Or at least, a friend of hers does.” He glanced at his watch. “I need you to go to the bus station. There will be a girl there, getting off the bus from Boston at about about five-thirty. Olivia, I think Becca said her name was.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “She’s your new project until I can figure out a better way of protecting her. She’s not to leave your sight, do you understand me?”
I frowned at him. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d given me a security mission without telling me exactly what I was looking out for, but this one still seemed odd. What exactly had this girl, whoever she was, done?
But Dad didn’t give me a chance to ask any of the questions. “To the bus station. Now, Dax.” There was something in the steely note to his voice that let me know he did know about what Kane had done, even without my admitting it. Like this was my punishment.
I felt a flicker of anger go through me at that. I wasn’t the one who had done anything wrong; why was I being punished? Hell, I had come here to rat out my brother, against my better judgment, all so that I wouldn’t piss off Dad over this.
Still, there was a part of me that was curious. This girl must have done something pretty serious if Dad was going to agree to protect her like that. I didn’t know Becca was involved in that kind of shit, but I guess things change and people grow up.
I gave Dad one last look and then headed toward the bus station. The longer I waited there for the late bus, the more frustrated I got. This girl couldn’t have done anything that would warrant having me on this case. I was a valuable asset to the club, and basically Dad had me on a babysitting mission. What a waste of my skills. If he was going to keep taking on jobs like this for wimps, he really needed to hire some dumber goons to be the protectors.
The bus pulled up, and I folded my arms across my chest, waiting for this girl, whoever she was. Olivia.
There were only a couple of people who got off the bus, so I could pick out Olivia right away. She was beautiful; that was the first thing I noticed. She had a pretty, heart-shaped face and big blue eyes. Her skin was tan, and I could see a tattoo on her thigh, peeking out from underneath her shorts. She came nervously over to me, and I realized she didn’t have any baggage or anything. Just the clothes on her back. That made me frown even more.
“Are you Otis?” she asked.
I barked out a quick laugh. “Uh, no,” I said, shaking my head.
She grimaced and made to turn away. “Sorry,” she mumbled, looking down at the map in her hands.
I reached out and plucked the map away from her. It was a map to the clubhouse. I frowned and quickly folded it back up, putting it in my pocket. In the hands of the wrong person, that was dangerous. I swung onto my bike. “Get on,” I told her.
To my surprise, the girl put her hands on her hips, glaring at me. “Give me my map back,” she said.
I rolled my eyes. “Get on the bike,” I told her.
She stomped her foot, but somehow, she didn’t look like a little kid when she did that. “I said, give me my map back,” she said, raising her voice. “I’m looking for Otis, and if you’re not him, then I need my map back so I can find him.”
“Jesus,” I muttered, looking around. There weren’t that many people around, but there were enough that she was making a scene. And the last thing the Grim Riders needed right now was a dumb wench making a scene. “I can take you to Otis. Just get on the damned bike. Now.”
She continued to glare at me, but finally, she huffed and got on the bike behind me, resting her hands lightly on my sides.
“You’re going to have to hold on tighter than that, sweetheart,” I said as I revved the bike. She quickly looped her arms around me as I sped off down the street, and I felt a grim flash of amusement. I had won this round, I was sure. But Jesus, what a piece of work.
Chapter 6
Olivia
AFTER A TERRIBLE BUS ride full of crying children and the smell of a stinky bathroom, I finally reached Greenboro. To be honest, the bus ride wasn’t even very long. But it was more than long enough for me to work myself up into a rage at having to get out of town anyway. Why had I stolen the fucking shoes to begin with? And why was I now running away from my problems like this? There had to be another way. Some way that I could convince the local gang I was sorry and that I would never do it again.
What the hell was I going to do with myself now I wasn’t in Boston? That question was at the forefront of my mind. Greenboro was the middle of nowhere, as far as I was concerned. There was nothing for me here.
And then I showed up and found the tattooed man waiting for me at the bus station, next to a bike, and I realized what Becca had really gotten me into. Out of the frying pan and into the fire: wasn’t that the expression? Instead of dealing with the gang I’d already pissed off back in Boston, she had sent me on to some other small-town gang here in Greenboro. I didn’t know how the fuck she knew this guy Otis, but I couldn’t believe she wanted me to go to him for protection. What the hell was she thinking?
This guy wasn’t even Otis, apparently. Which kind of made sense; he didn’t look like an Otis. But whoever the jerk was, he took my map and wouldn’t give it back. I didn’t have enough money to get on the next bus back to Boston (or to anywhere else for that matter), and hell, I didn’t even know where I would start stealing in Greenboro. There was barely even a town. All the shops seemed to be of the mom-and-pop variety, and if I was the only person in there, well, there was no way I was going to be able to get away with petty thievery.
Christ. What the hell was I doing here? How was I going to live?
I got on the back of the bike with whoever-this-guy-was. His attitude toward me sucked, but what the hell else was I going to do? Stuck in this shithole of a town, and now I had to deal with this guy. Just my luck.
I still hoped I could get my map back from him. I didn’t know why he had taken it in the first place.
He roared out of the parking lot and down the street, and it was all that I could do to cling to him and hope I wouldn’t fall off. I’d never been on a motorcycle before, and I had to admit, it was pretty exhilarating. But equal parts terrifying.
